


Betrayal

by LadySardonic



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Badass, Confusion, Dark Comedy, Fantasy, Gen, Gore, Revenge, Story Arc, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2020-07-10 05:54:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19900897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySardonic/pseuds/LadySardonic
Summary: Rose finds herself in the firing range of a lunatic noble and has no clue why. Growing up as a bandit, her life has been pretty fun and easy until someone betrays her group. Follow her journey through Skyrim as she grows and changes in good ways and bad. Will she ever trust again?





	1. The Beginning

Skyrim is so pretty at night. The stars sparkle above me and the moons shimmer, illuminating the world below. It's cold here, in the snowy mountains near Solitude, but the cold's effect on me dwindles as I lose myself in the view. The breeze flutters around me, making the trees shiver and the birds chatter and I sigh, relaxing against a nearby tree. I wish I could stay here forever. Unfortunately that's impossible. As the harsh reality sinks in, the rare glimmer of a content smile fades from my face. Nothing lasts forever, and I don't have time to waste here. Reluctantly, I stand upright and brush the snow from my armour. It's cold and fluffy, freshly fallen and perfect. After one last glance at the outlook, I gather myself and begin the trek down to our ambush point, I have work to do.

Approaching my group, I can see people setting up the ambush point and the usual bunch of idiots messing around. "Nice of you to join us, your highness." Mockingly, my friend Kallar bows and my cohorts snigger to themselves. I glare. These are the idiots.  
"Where are the clothes?" Kallar bounds up to me with a handful of finery, fit for a jarl. "I'll be a minute, help them get stuff set up." Turning on my heel, I stomp towards a tree and begin to get changed. Why do these sorts of clothes exist? There is no protection, I mean, I get the statement of 'I'm so rich and own a hold that has lots of guards so I don't have to wear armour' but surely if you were a jarl you'd need as much protection as possible? If the high king wore a dress like this then it's no wonder he died so easily. It took longer than I expected to pull all the bits and pieces on. I almost felt naked without any leather or metal covering me. Emerging from the trees, I see Kallar and his buddies turn, ready to mock me some more, but instead they stand with their mouths agape. I knew I'd look stupid in fancy clothing but it was for the plan to work, I didn't realise I would look so stupid that they couldn't even bring themselves to mock me about it. "Alright, I'm ready." They seem to snap back into reality and turn to get back to working while I approach Kallar. "So, I know I look stupid, but if you didn't know me... Could I pass as a noble?" I've known Kallar for a long time now, I expect an honest answer but instead he just scratches the back of his neck and laughs uncomfortably. "Kallar, this is kinda important to the plan, just tell me. Or maybe we should get someone else to wear the clothes?" He shifts uncomfortably between his feet and looks everywhere but me and murmurs a quick, "Nah, you're fine. I gotta do stuff, see you later." and practically runs away. Moron. I ask one of his lackeys where the boss is and make my way to his post.  
"Well, well, if it isn't the lovely Rose, looking good!" He winks at me and wiggles his eyebrows, It looks like he has two skeevers on his face. "I'm ready, do I look noble enough for the plan to work?" He gestures for me to twirl so he can see my outfit properly then gives me a thumbs up. "If I didn't know you, I'd think you were one of the richest ladies in Skyrim, very fetching." The boss is called Throstag, he's middle aged and pretty sleazy but he's fun to drink with and his men and women look up to him. Most of the time he's joking but his sense of humour gets him into trouble more often than not, especially when he's chatting up ladies in the cities. Throstag whistles softly to capture the attention of our group and starts speaking in a quiet but authoritative voice. "Right, you guys over there hide in the woods, you two lie on the floor and stay still and the rest of us wait over here, when someone approaches wait until they try to help R and go for the guards. Go!" I get into position, on the ground by the overturned carriage and wait. Luckily it doesn't take long for someone to approach. I can't make it out at first but as they get closer I can see a carriage with some ladies, a couple of men and more than a few heavily armed guards. Crap. I stick to the plan. Unless the boss tells me to abort he probably thinks it's safe. Tearing up I start to 'attempt' to stand up only to fall down again and cry out. The carriage stops just a few feet away but nobody gets out. "Hello? Please, somebody help me!" I cry out as pathetically as possible, wincing in pain and sniffling like a child. After a few minutes longer than I thought was necessary, one of the men approaches me with two guards in tow. I feel uneasy, my instincts are screaming at me but I ignore them and reach out to the man with one of my hands, squinting in pain and blubbering, only for him to slap it away and grab me forcefully "Ugh, Hey!" He lifts me up so suddenly I take a moment to react and I go to grab my dagger. He's quicker. I feel a sharp pain in my leg and cry out in pain, or, I try to but no sound comes out. Paralysing poison. Motionless, I'm confused about what's going on, I can hear the cries of my friends as they're slaughtered like cattle and I can see some of them running for their lives. I feel so useless, I have to...

Groggily, I wake up in a cell. Solitude. I know this cell well as we've been camped near here for a while now and I've seen the inside of this jail many times after starting tavern brawls when people got too handsy. I rub my eyes and try to lift myself up into a sitting position. My head swims with tiredness and I feel dizzy and heavy with fatigue. Slowly, I perch on the edge of the bed and try to recall the previous night's events. What happened? Who was that man? Why would he just take me to prison? I'm a nobody really, I mean, I cause a few fights and steal a few things but nothing serious, certainly not more serious than the others there who were killed instead of being brought to prison. "I've been after you for a while." The sudden break in silence startles me for a second before I regain my composure. The man from before is leaning on the wooden frame of my cell door smirking at me. I stay quiet. If I don't say anything, maybe he will tell me something I can use to get a grasp on what's going on. "A pretty thing like you, I should have guessed, a slut who takes advantage of men to further her own agendas." Puzzled I look at him, I have to squint as my eyes haven't fully adjusted to the darkness. There is a glimmer in his eyes, not one of amusement, nor one of happiness, but one of anger and disgust. I stay silent again, I doubt he'd answer my questions even if I asked. "How does it feel? Knowing that one of your bitches betrayed you, that must hurt." He bares his teeth in a twisted smile, almost snarling like a wild animal about to kill it's prey. Everything he says just confuses me more. Someone betrayed us? Why? And why does this guy have such a vendetta against me? He slams his palms on the bars of the door and almost shouts, "Answer me! How does it feel?" Silently, I stare straight at him. I don't know what's going on but I will not be scared into submission by a poncy nobleman. By now he's almost crying with rage, how could I possibly make someone so angry at me? All of a sudden he growls, turns and walks away. It's quiet and all I can hear is the distant sobs of poor souls who were stupid enough to get caught. I suppose I'm one of them. I'm a moron. Why did I let my guard down? This will never happen again. I need to find a way out, but how?

I wait until nighttime and watch the guards as they make their rounds, pretending to be asleep when they peer into my cell. After I get a feel for how to avoid them, I grab my lockpick. I always hide one in my hair, no one ever checks there and it's so long and tangled that you wouldn't know where to look unless you knew exactly where I put it. I have to find some armour, make it past all the guards and escape the city. Let's do this. I put some baskets and buckets on my bed, should be enough for the cursory glance the guard makes. As soon as the guard has moved past me and my neighbour, I pick the lock, praying it doesn't break. It only takes me a moment to unlock the door quietly. Before I exit the cell, I look around for the guards, make sure they can't see me and creep slowly to my right after closing my door again as softly as possible. I check the occupant of the cell next to me is asleep before sneaking past and into a long curvy corridor. The corridor is well lit so I pray to the nine Divines that no guards choose to go through here. I'm being reckless but... when am I not? At the end of the corridor there are some stairs going up to the next level of the prison. As I ascend them slowly, I hear a guard approaching and press flat against the wall and hold my breath. I panic slightly, unless he's blind if he comes down the stairs I'm screwed. It feels like hours go by while I'm waiting for him to pass, knowing should he see me I'll never get the chance to escape again. I exhale slowly and quietly catch my breath as his footsteps fade. I would say I'm a lucky bastard but if I was I wouldn't be here in the first place. As I proceed to the top of the stairs, I go left, only to halt as soon as I start moving. Peering into the first doorway, I see a guard drinking some ale. I can see some stairs at the other side of the room. Maybe if I go really slowly I can make it? I crawl on my hands and knees. I believe the prisoners belongings are stored in here, if I recall correctly that is. I've had a look around before, every time I was put in jail for a night, so if I can just remember... I bash into something slightly and freeze. The idiot is too busy drinking to notice. Works out for me I guess. I crawl the rest of the way to the stairs and go down them speeding up my pace a bit. No-one is down here, but some armour is! I pick both of the boxes, steal some stolen goods and some now stolen goods and put on parts of some leather armour that I can strap on quickly. I grab a bag that's lying around, shove the rest of the stuff in there and set off again.

I'm almost done, but this is the easy part. I go back up the stairs, the guard is walking around now so I go to the doorway and check where he is. Right in front of me. I spring back and hide behind the door clasping a hand to my mouth to muffle my gasp of shock from him being so close. Hearing his footsteps stomp past me to the stairs I just came up, I take the opportunity to rush out of the room. I speed past the screams of someone being tortured and into Castle Dour, just as I hear the cries of the guards seeing someone has opened the chests. They'll be after me as soon as they check if any prisoners are missing. As I make my way through to the front of the castle I can hear people chatting, something about Ulfric blah blah blah, don't care. There are guards right outside the door so I have to be ready. This is stupid and I'm probably going to get killed, but damn, this is fun. I push the door open with force and sprint as fast as possible. It takes the guards a second to register what's happening but soon they're all chasing me and yelling and trying to shoot me. I run down the stone walkway a bit and jump off, just barely dodging a sword that grazes my shoulder and ducking away from the arrows I can hear whistling past my ears. Ugh... a severe piercing pain erupts from my abdomen. I'm hit. I can't... I can't stop now. Clutching a hand to my wound to stop the blood flow, I see a gate to my left and sprint towards it. There are stairs going down and up. I go down. They should lead out of Solitude. As I surface from the stairway I find myself by the docks, but there is no time to enjoy the scenery as I can hear all the guards clambering down the stairs towards me. Thinking quickly, and with reckless abandon I storm straight into the freezing cold water. Let's not talk about the flurry of curse-words that came out of my mouth. I go under, and swim as quickly as I can before I literally freeze to death. I slow down as the cold starts to get to me, the arrow wound gives the cold water access to my bloodstream and slows me down tremendously. Luckily us Nords can... can handle the cold better than others and I manage to climb onto mushy swamp-ness. I... see the guards at the other side of the water, still trying to shoot me but... too chicken, or too smart, to swim after me. I grab the arrow and pull it out as crimson liquid starts to gush out of my stomach. I need to warm up and heal, if I don't I won't... live for much longer. I stumble towards... the grass and trees, eventually coming across a cabin. My vision is going blurry. As I approach I start to feel faint and weak so I begin to undress out of my wet rags, and enter the cabin, clumsily. There is a body on the bed, not breathing I don't think but I can't really check in this... this state. I put on their clothes, and curl up, my teeth chattering and my... body shivering uncontrollably before I...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you made it this far, thank you for reading my story! I'll be posting chapters rather regularly so I hope you enjoy reading!


	2. What's next on the agenda?

"She's 'gone'?" I pace back and forth angrily. I finally found her and she slips through my fingers in a matter of minutes. "What sort of prison are you people running?"  
"Well she-"  
"I'm not interested in your excuses!" I stop pacing and turn to face the guard. "I need to find her." All this time... And she just gets away.  
"She's dead. No way she could have survived a hit that bad without body armour." The guards voice trembles uncertainly. Dead? I wanted to make her suffer. Drain the blood from her body, hear her scream in pain. I suppose if she is dead it works in my favour, but it would still be very disappointing.  
"Your word isn't good enough. Find her and bring her to me. Dead or alive." I wave my hand dismissively and walk to the window. The sun shines upon my face, paying no mind to my misfortune. She's evaded me all these years, even if it was unknowingly. "I'll find you. One way or another." If you need a job done... You need to do it yourself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  


My eyelids are heavy. When I awake I struggle to open my eyes. I'm not as cold as before, in fact I can feel heat radiating off something lying over my frozen limbs. I thought I was dead. Opening my eyes sleepily, I'm faced with a large dog curled up next to me. Shocked I rub my eyes and stare at it for a little while, thinking I'm hallucinating. The dog lifts it's head off my leg and looks at me, blinking it's eyes innocently before licking my face with it's gross, slobbery tongue. "Agh! Stop it you mutt!" I feebly try to push the dog away but I'm still weak from the loss of blood and cold. It wags it's tail in victory and sits up, giving me a chance to push myself up to lean against the bed. I know a few basic healing spells, so I can try to heal my wounds enough for traveling. My blood has dried and stuck to the clothing I changed into. Peeling the clothing away enough to heal is painful but it doesn't cause the wound to start bleeding again. I've lost a lot of blood but somehow I'm still alive. I guess I am a lucky bastard after all. The healing spell tingles as it knits my skin back together neatly and effortlessly. The dog watches my movements curiously, it's tail never failing to stop wagging happily. After I heal, I give myself a few moments to regain my energy and try to stand up. Since I've been lying on the floor for however long, my back is stiff and painful and my arms and legs feel numb. Stretching carefully, I look around the cabin. It's small and cosy, there is a bed and some other bits of furniture occupying the limited amount of space. Outside the window are tall green trees, lush and beautiful grass and the sunshine twinkles off the droplets of dew causing rainbows to appear. Inside the shack, the body is still lying on the bed. A man, maybe middle aged, is lying down with his eyes closed, mostly nude seeing as I ransacked his corpse for clothing to change into. I approach the body and notice a journal. The journal is old, the pages yellowed and some torn. I take care opening to the last page and read.  


> 'Well, after all my years living in these woods, it looks like the Rockjoint will finally be the end of me. I guess that's fine. All my friends are long dead. The only one left is poor Meeko. He was always a loyal companion, and I know he'll be able to take care of himself. I hope someday I'll see him again.'

  
Wow. I mean, he didn't even try and help himself. It takes less than a day to get to Solitude from here and he couldn't even be bothered to go talk to a healer. How could he leave his dog all alone like this? Meeko looks at his owner sadly, his tail hanging still and he whines softly. Oh god. I walk up to him and pat him on the back awkwardly. "Hey so, he's dead. Wanna come with me?" Nailed it. I'm just going to pretend that talking with a dog isn't weird. He looks at me, tail wagging, and barks happily at my suggestion. "Great! You saved my life after all, so... Why in oblivion not?"  
I scavenge all the useful items left in the shack, food, water and any gold hanging around. I haven't decided what I'm doing yet. I guess I'll find a hold capital like Whiterun so I can sell some stuff and earn some gold. Surely there are some people that need to hire a sword around Skyrim. People always want someone dead. My new armour is still rather wet from my impromptu swim, other than that it's still intact seeing as I wasn't wearing it all when I was shot. I wonder if my own armour is still lying were I left it. I've had that armour for a while now, Throstag helped me make it when I was 17. I haven't grown much since then. Throstag... I wonder if he's still alive. I sigh absentmindedly as I trace the edges of the leather on my armour. The puffed up ponce said that someone betrayed us. But who? Most of the people in our group had joined us because they needed some way to earn money. Whether they fell on hard times, lost someone dear to them or whatever possibly could have happened to them to make them turn to banditry, Throstag was loyal and welcoming to them all. He said a group with loyalty is a family, and we take care of family. I shake my head as if I'm trying to shake the thoughts out of my mind. Now's not the time to think about this. I need to get somewhere safe first or the guards will find me. Seeing as I don't have a better plan... Whiterun it is. Meeko and I leave the shack cautiously. The guards of Skyrim aren't known for being sneaky so I'm sure we'd know if they were here. That weirdo will be searching for me and I doubt the fact the holds track crime separately will matter. I'm hoping that Morthal will be the first place they look as they saw me heading in that direction, so if I go straight towards Whiterun I should be able to slip out from Haafingar quite easily. "Come on, boy." I beckon to Meeko and we begin our journey. It's going to take a while; I'm glad I'm not alone.  


The sun beams down on us, blocked partially by the trees but every now and then you get hit with a warm stream of light, a nice feeling on my still cold body. It's about midday as we leave the shack, a couple of hours, I'd say, since my daring escape from loony and his goons. The guards will be close. It would be smarter to travel off the beaten path but unfortunately I don't know the mountainy area well enough to be able to find my way to Whiterun without a map. As we continue, I can hear distant fighting, metal screeching against metal and lots of yelling. I approach slowly, not wanting to draw attention to myself, and duck behind a tree. There's a fight between the Stormcloaks and the Imperial soldiers, the Stormcloaks seem to be winning in this particular fight. Scanning the makeshift battleground, I try to find some kind of weapon but even the corpses are in the midst of the battle. I don't have time to sit around and watch, perhaps this fight will cause enough distraction to the guards to buy me a little extra time. I sneak past, not that I really needed to, they were too busy yelling stuff or being killed.  


Once I'm far enough from them that they are just a murmur of noise, as if the daedra answered my prayers, a nice sword catches my eye, just resting there on the ground next to a knapsack but with no person in sight. I'm more of a bow person but beggars can't be choosers, I go to grab it when a hand grabs my wrist and throws me backwards with quite a large amount of force, causing me to stumble and trip, falling right onto my behind. "What's a milk drinker like you gonna do with a sword like this?" A disembodied voice booms at me, before an orc and a khajiit appear suddenly in front of me cackling to themselves, pleased that they came up with such a funny prank. "Ha ha ha." I laugh sarcastically at them in return, the sword is against my throat and Meeko has buggered off somewhere out of sight. Their eyes darken and the laughter dies out. "Search the bag, I had dibs on the first pretty lady." The orc growls and smiles as me, showing many of his gross, yellowing teeth. My face scrunches up in disgust, no way in oblivion I'm going to let that bastard touch me. The orc lowers his sword and goes to grab me again by the wrist when as if by magic, Meeko appears and dives straight at his arm, tearing a great gash in his mud caked skin. A cry of pain comes from the large orc and he swings his sword arm out wildly, trying to hit one of us. I take the opportunity of him being carelessly close and swing my legs under him, causing him to lose balance and tumble to the ground, dropping his sword in the process. Dimwit number two takes a few seconds to react to his partner in crime being attacked and lunges for the sword, I'm faster this time. He splutters as blood drips from his mouth, the force of him diving towards me and me thrusting the sword in his direction causes the sword to go straight through him, right to the hilt. Standing up, I push his body off the blade with my foot as I pull the sword towards me, a nice satisfactory squelch and the sword is mine. I turn to face Meeko and the orc, or what is left of the orc anyway. "There's a good boy!" I grin as he bounds up to me, ruffling his messy fur and patting him on the head. It's already been quite an eventful trip and it's only been an hour at most. Exhausting... I see a bandit camp ahead, now I've got a weapon I can clear it out and sleep for a bit, seems like I'll have to pass it regardless of whether I fight or not so might as well take the opportunity to rest. I rifle through the knapsack and take anything useful, a steel dagger, mead of course, gold and some potions. "Well, Meeko... Up for another round?" Meeko barks cheerfully at my suggestion and trots alongside me as I make my way towards the camp. Lots of bandits, a mage, two handed and one handed weapons... Eh, I'm sleepy, let's go.  


I slowly make my way towards one of the bandits guarding an entrance and I slit his throat before he can make a sound, I lower the body to the ground quietly and move it over a bit to bring it out of view a little more. Making my way through the bandits patrolling the camp, I take them down one by one as subtly as possible. Someone is bound to notice any second now that people are disappearing and raise an alarm, speed is of the essence. There are a few drinking, a few making potions and a couple practising their sword fighting skills. They are all grouped together, I doubt I will be able to take them out separately during broad daylight and especially while they are chatting amongst themselves. I'm getting impatient with all this waiting around and planning, I've got potions, let's just kill them already. I run as quietly as I can towards the closest group, they're grouped separately from the others and will give me a chance to kill them before the others make their way over. These are the ones making potions, when they notice me charging towards them they draw their weapons, one war-hammer, one short sword and a mage. I cut through the mage before he can charge up his lightning spell, spilling his intestines onto the floor and splattering his blood on his friends as I waste no time in flicking my sword towards them. Ducking beneath a very heavy war-hammer being swung at my head, I cut the backs of my attackers knees, as he falls to the ground I impale him in the chest with my sword quickly before turning to the last opponent of the group. The other bandits have heard the commotion and are already arriving into this part of the camp, Meeko is buying me time by ripping apart some of our new friends and I use this to finish off my final group member before sprinting to help Meeko. We make a good team and manage to duck, dodge and kill all the remaining bandits, as I plunge my sword into the last one I exhale, pull out my sword and sit down in the middle of the corpses. It's been a while since I had a proper nights rest, I've been helping to plan our ambushes for weeks, staying up all night as I worked out all the little details and went over any risks. Obviously, I didn't do my job well as I never saw this coming. Yawning, I stretch and lie down, using one of the dead bandits as a rather uncomfortable pillow. I don't have enough time to sleep properly, I'll just rest my eyes for a little while...  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  


_The candle flickers delicately, illuminating the dark room and Throstag's face as he closes the book he was reading and smiles at me. "Throstag?" Little me asks sleepily, rubbing my eyes and blinking away the tiredness, "Do I have a mummy and daddy? Like the girl in the story?" The smile on his face wavers a little uncertainly, as if he is unsure how to answer.  
"Dunno, you were a babe when we found you and no parent in sight..." He clears his throat uncomfortably, the smile on his face a ghost of what it was. "But who needs 'em hey? You're a strong girly, you should only rely on yourself, your parents would just bring ya trouble." Scratching his chin thoughtfully and losing his smile he whispers, so quietly it's more like he is talking to himself than me. "Your folks would be proud of you, ya know? Maybe they just know they aren't good enough for you..." His smile returns and he taps a finger to my nose, "Right you, bedtime." My eyes are already closed and my protests are half asleep mumbles, by the time he picks me up to take me to my bed I'm already asleep. ___

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are all keeping well during all this virus stuff! :) I also hope you enjoy my story and thank you for reading!


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